Capital Region schools more racially diverse than ever

Dozens of school districts in the Capital Region are more racially diverse than they were 20 years ago, although the demographic changes are not always reflected in the classroom, according to data released by the Washington Post.

H John Voorhees III2of18Click through the slideshow to see the best school districts in the Albany area for 2020, according to Niche, a website that ranks schools and neighborhoods.SKIP DICKSTEIN3of18No. 16: Stillwater Central School DistrictHans Pennink/Times Union4of18

Of 41 school districts spread among four counties — Albany, Schenectady, Rensselaer and Saratoga — 35 saw notable changes in their racial makeups.

Lansingburg, North Colonie, South Colonie, Niskayuna and Watervliet schools saw the greatest strides in diversity, aided in part, by a surge of immigrants and refugees to the Capital Region in recent years. All five districts went from being primarily white in 1994-95 to highly diverse in the 2016-17 school year.

Two city districts — Albany and Schenectady — have been diverse for decades and continue to serve diverse student bodies.

However, diversity levels in school don't paint a complete portrait of the region's change; while racial divides in the region have eroded over the years, economic geographic boundaries persist. Foreign-born students at suburban schools are less likely to be from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, while the state's refugee resettlement efforts are concentrated in Albany's urban center.

At least 20 percent of the region's 58,000 foreign-born residents have graduate degrees and about a quarter of foreign full-time workers here earn more than $75,000 annually, according to U.S. Census figures.

Highly educated immigrants from countries like India, China and Guyana are drawn to the Capital Region's many universities, medical centers and tech companies, and those shifts are born out in suburban schools, demographers say.

The data also reflects the erosion of discriminatory housing practices, including redlining, which has enabled racial divides between urban and suburban public schools in the region to soften (although economic inequities remain steadfast).

"What we've found is that our school populations are reflective of our housing patterns. ... When we open up our housing policies and our homes become more integrated, our schools become more integrated," said Jasmine Gripper, legislative director at the Alliance for Quality Education.

The Washington Post data also measured integration levels, or how evenly a district's diversity is spread across its schools. Districts were identified as highly, somewhat and not integrated. The majority of districts in the region were considered either too small or too undiverse to integrate.

Newly diverse districts of North Colonie, South Colonie, Amsterdam, Niskayuna and Troy were all deemed "highly integrated," according to the Washington Post analysis. Historically diverse Schenectady city schools are also extremely integrated.

However, Albany city schools, the largest urban district the region, serving nearly 10,000 students, was historically very diverse, but neighborhood divides are reflected in its elementary and middle school populations. Because of this, the district is considered only "somewhat integrated," according to the Washington Post data.

Elementary schools in Albany tend to be less racially diverse, because students enter the Albany public school system in pre-kindergarten, for which there is no funding for transportation, Albany schools Spokesman Ron Lesko said.

Classrooms in Albany become more integrated in the upper grades as students at the city's 11 public non-charter elementary schools are funneled into four middle schools and eventually merged into one integrated high school.

"We do have a plan beginning this winter to develop an enrollment model that would provide us with three middle schools that are equitable in enrollment and we look forward to implementing it," Lesko said.

Three magnet elementary schools in Albany may also amplify racial divisions, particularly at the Montessori Magnet School, which has disproportionately served white and more affluent families since it was relocated to a non-central location on Tremont Street — a frequent topic of conversation at Albany school board meetings.

The Thomas O'Brien Academy of Science and Technology, or TOAST, is also less reflective of the district's population, as it serves a growing population of immigrants from Myanmar, formerly Burma.

The most segregated public schools in Albany are charter schools, which tend to be predominantly black and are not included in the new data set, because they are privately run.

Recognizing these demographic shifts, a number of historically and newly diverse schools in the region say they are recommitting to equity. These include Schenectady and Albany city school districts, which have long invested in equity programs and anti-bias training for teachers and staff.

"It's all about changing mindsets and bringing the conversation apologetically forward," Albany Superintendent Kaweeda Adams said in a past interview. "It's extremely important the way we look at equity and how it influences everything that we do."

Niskayuna recently hired a chief equity officer, Latisha Barnett, who previously oversaw diversity programming at Skidmore College and the College of Saint Rose.

"Strengthening our connections with all students and families and becoming a leader in the area of cultural responsiveness remains a top district priority," Niskayuna Superintendent Cosimo Tangorra Jr. said.

But other schools in the region have been slow to adapt to these demographic shifts, advocates say. As schools grow more diverse, administrators should conduct school-wide anti-bias training to ensure that negative stereotypes are not perpetuated in the classroom, AQE's Gripper said.

Newly diverse districts should also hire teachers that look like the students and make lessons culturally adaptive, including use of textbooks and literature featuring characters of different races and ethnicities, advocates say.

"What we find is that students are more likely to read about characters about animals than about students who look like them," Gripper said. "These things are very important for student to feel valued and seen and supported in the school community."

Diversity in schools

According to a Washington Post analysis of diversity in schools nationwide, 17 school districts in the Capital Region became significantly more diverse between 1995 and 2017. Among those 17 districts, five jumped from "Extremely Undiverse" to "Diverse;" three changed from "Undiverse to Diverse" and nine changed from "Extremely Undiverse" to "Undiverse."

The analysis deemed several schools on the list as "Highly integrated" or "Somewhat integrated," which means the racial makeup at the district's individual schools matched the diversity of the district.

Districts that lack diversity cannot be integrated so the Post's analysis only looked at integration in "diverse" districts.

Note: The Post's analysis considered a district "diverse" when no one race constituted more than 75 percent of the school system's overall student body. "Highly integrated" means that the district's diversity is spread evenly across the district's schools.